Emily Parker spoke with author and nurse Sheila Leech, about her new book 'God Knows What I'm Doing Here,' and her adventurous life going around the world nursing people in places like Ecuador, Ghana, and in the aftermath of natural disasters in Haiti, Indonesia and Pakistan and during war in Lebanon.

Emily: Why did you decide to write 'God Knows What I'm Doing Here'?

Sheila: I had been writing down stories over the years. I'm a story teller, I love to tell stories. In the old days when I was in Ecuador I used to write to my church every month telling them what was going on. When I came back to do my nursing, the missionary secretary at our church gave me a package of nine years of letters that I'd written to the church. I went through those letters and read them and realised how much I'd forgotten and I was horrified. You know, the stories of what God had done and the way He'd spoken and led and done amazing things in people's lives. The Old Testament is full of reminders to not forget what God has done for you and to remember the way He led you. So I started to write so that I didn't forget.

Then a couple of years ago I took a sabbatical and found it quite therapeutic to write down some of the things. I decided to put them into a book, which I was going to self-publish and just family and friends may want to read it. Then it got accepted for publication by Authentic Media and that's when it all started to happen, so I'm really happy about that.

Emily: Who would you say this book is for?

Sheila: I hope the book is for people who enjoy a good story. It's not a book specifically aimed at Christian people or people of a faith. There are things about my faith in the book, because that's who I am. It's kind of autobiographical, but I hope it depicts the wonderful team that I work with and the fabulous people that I've come in contact with over the years. I hope it's a good read. It's not academic, or hard to read. It's simple, so I would hope it goes for a broad spectrum of people who would just enjoy hearing good stories from a missionary over the years. There are some adventures in there too; some pretty exciting things have happened along the way.

Emily: If anybody wants to get hold of a copy of the book, where can they head to?

Sheila: They can Google it and Foyles Bookstore have it on their website. It will be an eBook and will be available on Amazon too. It's called 'God Knows What I'm Doing Here', which is a brilliant title. My brother in-law suggested it, so all credit to him for that title.